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Boogiepop's outfit: nightmare of cosplay's worldwide

While typing the review of Serial Experiments Lain I kept finding myself wanting to compare it to other series such as Neon Genesis Evangelion and Boogiepop Phantom as I found review a surreal series in a vacuum just doesn't work. That said, here's another slightly informative but not particularly funny review; Boogiepop Phantom (NGE is a whole can of bile-filled worms I'm not going to even consider right now).

Boogiepop Phantom is a 13 episode anime series that just a small portion of the Boogiepop series, which consists of many light novels and also probably sounds a lot less retarded in its native language.
BP's plot takes place in the aftermath of the events of a previous story, and focuses on a whole bunch of vaguely connected people and how they cope with the supernatural powers that have been awakened by a pillar of light.

Now, time for some comparisons (which incidentally are a lot easier to structure than actual sentences, hurrah for convenience):

Structure:
-SEL is linear and straightforward (the subject matter on the other hand...).
-BP is non-linear. Episodes cover the time of the pillar of light to about a month later, and frequently flashback to five years ago when a serial killer was stalking the city.

Characters:
-SEL has a small group of core characters (Lain, her family, her friends, God) and a few recurring characters (the MiB, the Cyberia kids). None of these characters seem to have any real development, but given the nature of the show, that could be the point or I could have just completely missed it.
-BP features a new central character and their close acquaintances in most of the episodes. By the end of the episode the central character has probably meet an unpleasant end and only will appear again in a cameo in a later episode, which chronologically will occur earlier. There are several main characters though, and despite featuring in the intro they don't appear as much as one would think.

Visuals:
-SEL's strength is its visuals; they are diverse and creative. Old school game graphics, surreal lighting, weird shit coming out of the walls, and on screen text directed at the viewer are just some of animation present in this series.
-BP goes in the completely different direction. Where SEL is diverse and ever changing, BP uses a desaturated colour palette and a vignette effect (clear in the middle, blurred on the edges) for every episode except the last. While this can be hard to see in the numerous night scenes and may get monotonous, it also gets across the bleak uncaring feel of the anime's world.

Plot:
-SEL...
-BP...

Ultimately Serial Experiments Lain and Boogiepop Phantom can be simplified as works with similar styles and genre that go in completely different directions, and this is significant in regards to the overall plot and viewer understanding of these works. With each episode of SEL more questions are raised then answered, and by the end much is left unanswered and the viewer must make their on conclusions; whereas BP starts off foggy, but as one watches the episodes characters and events begin to line up, and by the end a coherent plot (or at least the hints of a coherent plot) are present. It's for this reason first and foremost that I prefer Boogiepop Phantom over Serial Experiments Lain.

Rating things is often problematic. Since I gave SEL a 3/5 already, I guess I should give BP 4/5. But does BP really does that? Perhaps I should say that SEL gets 2/5 and BP gets 3/5? The nature of ratings is that unless there are some really clear and concise guidelines, past ratings come back to bite you in the ass, and even with guidelines there will always be special cases. So how about this?

Boogiepop Phantom > Serial Experiments Lain